Twitter Opened Wallet, Acquired TapCommerce for Rumored $100M

Image Courtesy of AFP

In recent Tech news, Twitter is acquiring the mobile advertising firm, TapCommerce for a reported $100M. For those that do not know, TapCommerce is a business that focuses on bringing the customer back. In other words we are talking about re-targeting. What does this mean? The company’s goal and/or mission are to persuade potential customers to reopen apps that have been stale on their devices. Some of TapCommerce’s notable clients are Hotels.com and eBay. But why would Twitter choose to acquire the firm?

According to Twitter Vice President of Global Online Sales, Richard Alfonsi; “Since the announcement of our acquisition of MoPub last September, we’ve been laying out our vision for how advertising across the mobile ecosystem can work better for marketers, app developers, and (most importantly) users.

“Together with the TapCommerce team, Twitter will be able to offer mobile app marketers more robust capabilities for app re-engagement, tools and managed service solutions for real-time programmatic buying, and better measurement capabilities,” he writes. “Combined with our other ad solutions, advertisers will be able to drive conversions and ROI with mobile consumers on and off of Twitter, across the full user lifecycle — from acquiring new users through app installs, to engaging existing users who already have the advertisers’ apps on their device. And if you’re an everyday mobile user, we expect this will mean better and more relevant ads in the apps you use.”

According to TapCommerce they describe themselves as the leader in mobile retargeting.  “We’re trusted by the most successful mobile brands to deliver customers, revenue, and return on investment across mobile platforms. TapCommerce is a venture-backed mobile technology company headquartered in New York City’s Union Square.”

Twitter clearly sees the value in the company to pay the price tag but when a company reaches over 50,000 apps in this era of mobile computing, I am sure Twitter wants to makes sure that they are involved in this crucial market space. I cannot say that I blame them. More to follow as the way ahead and enterprise level expectations are flushed out. Stay tuned.